Topic: More oh Dear! Posted 1st September on the Matravers school website

[justice]

Well it's the place you choose to go on about everything else, so go on bullet points will do........

Putting signs up about the ducks doesn't count by the way   

[baldy]

Well it's the place you choose to go on about everything else, so go on bullet points will do........

Putting signs up about the ducks doesn't count by the way 

Actually, the ducks saga was not a success for me. The signs put up by Wiltshire Council did not have land-owners consent and got taken down soon after ......   :-(
This was not my fault ... and I need to do some more work on that one ....
This thread should not descend into a debate about my record as a councillor. I have my own Blog for that purpose, so I decline your kind invite to blow my trumpet at length here (though obviously I might sneak in a quick blast every now and then in this forum).

[justice]

Yeah I've looked there but couldn't really see anything of note. Never mind, I admire your modesty which obviously prevents you from listing them, I understand................

Not to mention your tenacity for staying on a board where you're not wanted.

[baldy]

Yeah I've looked there but couldn't really see anything of note. Never mind, I admire your modesty which obviously prevents you from listing them, I understand................

Not to mention your tenacity for staying on a board where you're not wanted.

Fine.  I see your point, but I see that as positive rather than the way you think.
 
At the end of the day, I am only accountable to:
 
a) The local electorate.  I was elected only last year as a Wiltshire Councillor with a large majority (of those who bothered to take part - those who did not forfeited their right to be involved). Westbury electors are an intelligent bunch who know what is going on via local newspapers and they came to their own conclusions about who would be the best candidate to actually do the work they want and deal with the relevant local issues ... and this was despite a long-running smear campaign against me (nothing to do with LFC or Hillsborough).
 
b) The standards system at County Hall if I've done anything wrong. I have not heard anything to suggest that there is a problem, apart from a request to make sure that I stay the right side of the line with regards to all relevant laws and codes of conduct.
 
c) The Law.
 
Anything else is just in the imagination of those who like to think they've got something on me to cause me difficulty. The Matravers School governing body can only deal with me in accordance with the Law. There is no law that allows them to prevent me from speaking the truth about non-confidential matters in response to a public smear campaign conducted improperly by members of the Board itself in the name of the school ....
 
 
As far as I am aware, I am fully in the clear on all counts. I still think my votes will go up at any future election if I take part because my record of solving problems and proving that allegations about me are always false just keeps on getting longer and deeper ....
 
 

[justice]

smear campaign conducted improperly by members of the Board itself in the name of the school ....

Amazes me how many of these you seem to get caught up in. Is it just because you're unlucky or do you think there might be another reason?

[baldy]

I know the reason but it's difficult to fully explain as it's complicated.
 
However, there a few basic threads through the problem:
 
1. Westbury Politics is rather dirty and a group of elderly councillors campaigned against me for a long period, during which their friends also joined in and remain hostile to me .. often popping up to jump on any new opportunity to take a potshot at me.
 
2. I don't back down from conflict when many or most would. Sometimes this gives the impression that I'm doing something wrong repeatedly, but usually there is the same people involved at the core causing the same problem based on their own misunderstanding.  Over time, I've won all these battles and can list them.
 
I am seriously contemplating a clean-up campaign which identifies exactly who lied and misbehaved to the public. This would be entirely legal and correct. This Matravers saga would be the ideal launch issue if it spins out of control.
 
3. Local newspapers print any rubbish about people's views, including smears and false claims. They get away with this because they allow letters to be printed in reply. I have had to confront several repeat liars in this way in recent years. They are all linked to Cllr Bill Braid in one way or another, who is the long-running anti-Cllr Hawker smear campaigner in chief.

[justice]

Thanks, you see, I just knew there would be a rational explanation!

I still don't get it though. Why would they want to smear you or campaign against you in the first place? Just because they feel like?

I can't believe people would do such a thing just because you don't back down from conflict. I've never backed down from conflict in my life, yet not once have I been involved in a smear campaign.

[baldy]

Thanks, you see, I just knew there would be a rational explanation!

I still don't get it though. Why would they want to smear you or campaign against you in the first place? Just because they feel like?

I can't believe people would do such a thing just because you don't back down from conflict. I've never backed down from conflict in my life, yet not once have I been involved in a smear campaign.

Ok. I forgot to explain their motives.
 
In the first place, I confronted some bad behaviour by some elderly councillors. They made false allegations about me and I proved that it was all nonsense. Funnily enough, one was a Matravers School Governor (the previous and now retired chairman) who got investigated himself and ended up with more proven breaches of the code of conduct on his record than anyone else in Wiltshire ... and probably far beyond.
 
Other people joined in, one way or another, and I refused to budge on their demands.
 
The average competence of many people who volunteer to join committees in Westbury is not very high ... and there is often a tendency for some people to ignore proper rules and make up their own rules. This causes problems when I point out that they are acting improperly and bending rules in a corrupt way.
 
All of this is about politics and the wish of some people to try to out manoeuvre me - and others I work with - by resorting to improper tactics. It never works in the end for them, but it does look bad for me whilst all the lies and nonsense are flying about.
 
I am able to explain it all away as my official record is still clean and I can prove what has happened with extensive records that I have kept. I am now at the stage where the pattern of events is easy to explain simply by showing that I was right and the allegations or claims made by others are always wrong.

[justice]

mmmmmmm still not sure it covers it. Have you ever thought the way you behave might be an issue or are you always right and everyone else is always wrong?

[baldy]

mmmmmmm still not sure it covers it. Have you ever thought the way you behave might be an issue or are you always right and everyone else is always wrong?

Obviously, I've been getting it wrong all along .....
 
I should have just agreed that doing things wrongly is OK and that I will happily be bullied into doing things the old and corrupt way ....
 
I should have ignored my election promises etc etc etc         (NOT).

[justice]

Doing things wrongly is not ok, that's not what I said.

It's just funny that if you're always in the right and Bill Braid is a serial smearer how come you were given a warning under the 1997 Harrassment act and he wasn't?

I just don't think you can possibly be right 100% of the time and everyone else be wrong 100% of the time, I think there's a possibility you bring a lot of it on yourself Russell, it's just a hunch I have............

Sticking to your election promises is the right thing to do though.

[pat]

Need to rename this thread

The boring Miss Adventures Of A No Mark councilor

[johnsouthwales]

i mentioned this a while back, and may as well agree with something said by justice earlier.
school governor/pupil relations - lead by example, set an example etc... what would the kids think when puils see their governor in a bad light?  that's the whole point in the issue

[baldy]

Doing things wrongly is not ok, that's not what I said.

It's just funny that if you're always in the right and Bill Braid is a serial smearer how come you were given a warning under the 1997 Harrassment act and he wasn't?

I just don't think you can possibly be right 100% of the time and everyone else be wrong 100% of the time, I think there's a possibility you bring a lot of it on yourself Russell, it's just a hunch I have............

Sticking to your election promises is the right thing to do though.

I've explained before that I have an officially spotless police record - ie. No record at all -  and Bill Braid lied. The police warning you mention simply was a notice telling me what his allegations were so that I knew what he had said. I did nothing wrong but the police have invented an unofficial notice which they use when people are arguing and one party has made claims about harassment that may or may not be true and where no real evidence exists anyway ...

[justice]

I see, the Police just invented an unofficial notice.........................I just knew they'd be wrong.